A typical golf club "wood" has a pear-shaped head that is attached to a shaft. The front face of the head is flat or only slightly bulged, and usually has a plastic insert that provides the hitting surface. A central rectangular region of the front face of the insert which lies directly ahead of the center of mass of the head defines its "sweet spot". If one were to draw an imaginary line that is parallel to the axis of the shaft and which passes through the center of mass of the head, there is a substantial offset distance between this line and the longitudinal axis of the shaft. Not only is the line offset toward the toe of the club head, the line also is offset toward the rear of the shaft.
The offset design of a conventional club head causes problems that continue to frustrate even the most skilled golfers. The offset between the sweet spot and the shaft axis provides a built-in moment arm between the impact point with the golf ball and the shaft which dictates that if such moment arm is not precisely perpendicular to the arc of club movement at the instant of impact, but is at an angle with respect thereto, something generally undesirable may happen to the flight of the ball. The shot can be a slice or a hook, depending upon whether the angle is negative (club face "open") or positive (club face "closed"). Although skilled golfers will occasionally deliberately slice or hook the ball in order to cause the ball to fly around an obstruction between them and the pin, or for other reasons, in most cases a slice or hook shot is inadvertent, and indeed unfortunate as those skilled in the art will recognize.
Another shortcoming of the conventional wood club head design is related to the fact that the hitting face and insert, as mentioned above, provide a relatively flat surface. Where the arc of the swing is not precisely on line with the direction in which the golfer wants the ball to go, the resulting shot can be "pushed" to the right of, or "pulled" to the left of, the desired line of flight. Since the hitting surface is substantially flat, the ball necessarily responds to the direction in which the club head is moving, even assuming that the face is neither open nor closed as described above. Thus the typical club head is unforgiving in circumstances where the swing of the golfer results in an arc of movement of the club head that is not exactly on line with the desired general direction of ball flight at the instant of impact with the ball.
The general object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved wood-type club head design which minimizes, if not alleviates altogether, the foregoing problems with prior club head designs.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved wood-type club head design in which the axis of the shaft passes through the center of mass of the head to provide vastly improved golf shots.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved wood-type club head having an extreme outwardly bulge of the hitting face that functions to accommodate imperfections in the arc of a golfer's swing that would otherwise result in a pushed or pulled golf shot.